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 ONiVERSITY OF ILLiNOIS UBHAnY 
 AT URBA.NA'C,HAMPA!SN 
 
 STACKS
 
 I
 
 WKat E\'ery Emploj)e 
 Ought to Kno\iJ About 
 
 tke 
 
 ILLINOIS CENTRAL 
 SYSTEM 
 
 Compliments of 
 
 C. H. MARKHAM
 
 
 8^ 
 
 Or 
 Cic 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 The greatest asset of 
 which the Illinois Central 
 System may boast is thou- 
 sands of efficient and loyal 
 employes ; to say they are 
 highly appreciated by the 
 management is a mild state- 
 ment. That they may have 
 ready information about 
 their employer, this pam- 
 phlet was compiled and 
 printed. It is dedicated to 
 their loyalty and efficiency. 
 
 It is hoped that employes, 
 after familiarizing them- 
 selves with its contents, will 
 preserve the pamphlet for 
 reference purposes. 
 
 Chicago, June 20, 1921. 
 
 ? 
 
 15
 
 * Bread Basket of the World" 
 
 Page Two
 
 jHE Illinois Central System, 
 which interlaces the Missis- 
 sippi Valley and the South, 
 Tf^\ had its beginning in 1851, 
 when the Illinois Central 
 _! Railroad Company, the par- 
 ent road, was chartered to build a railway 
 through Central Illinois. The charter 
 lines, completed during the following five 
 years, consist of 705^ miles, all in Illinois. 
 These have been added to by construction, 
 leases and purchases until the present 
 system, with more than 8,000 miles of 
 lines, is nearly twelve times its original 
 size, represents 3^ per cent of the total 
 railway mileage of the United States and 
 serves fifteen states in the "bread basket 
 of the world." 
 
 The system occupies an unique geo- 
 graphical location, stretching from the 
 Great Lakes at Chicago to the Gulf of 
 Mexico at New Orleans, and throwing 
 out great arms to the upper Missouri 
 River Valley at Omaha, Sioux City and 
 Sioux Falls and to the Atlantic seaboard 
 at Savannah, with a network of feeder 
 lines woven through this fertile region. 
 
 The Birth of a Railway 
 
 Building the charter lines was the re- 
 sult of daring imagination, a monumen- 
 tal engineering feat for its day. Previous 
 attempts by both state and private enter- 
 prise to build a Central Illinois railway 
 had failed. The then largest railway sys- 
 tem in the United States, the New York 
 & Erie, was only 300 miles in length. 
 Virtually all traffic moved along east and 
 west lines, to and from the Atlantic sea- 
 board, and the success of a north and 
 south railway, opening new trade routes, 
 was held by many to be extremely doubt- 
 ful. 
 
 There w^ere no railway engineers of es- 
 tablished reputation in the country. The 
 capital involved was the largest amount 
 that had been devoted to a single private 
 undertaking in the United States at that 
 time. It was necessary to import a great 
 deal of the material from England, ship- 
 ping it from the Atlantic seaboard by 
 
 Page Three
 
 primitive railways and canals, by rivers 
 and wagon roads. 
 
 Central Illinois was an almost un- 
 touched prairie wilderness. There were 
 few good highroads ; most of the travel 
 was by former Indian trails and newly 
 made section roads, impassable for long 
 periods during the winter storms and ■ 
 spring rains, when farmhouses and often 
 entire towns were isolated. Labor was 
 not plentiful. 
 
 Agricultural development had been 
 slow. Mines had been opened, but were 
 limited in operation by lack of adequate 
 transportation. Industrial activity was 
 confined almost entirely to the few cities. 
 
 The actual history of the Illinois 
 Central Railroad Company* dates from 
 February 10, 1851, the day on which its 
 charter was approved by the Legislature 
 of Illinois. 
 
 Grant of Government Lands 
 
 Under the terms of the charter the 
 company was granted the title to 
 2,595,133 acres of government lands in 
 Illinois, which had been ceded to the 
 state to aid in the building of a Lakes- 
 to-the-Gulf railway. In return for this 
 grant, the charter provided that the road 
 should pay into the state treasury an- 
 nually, in lieu of other taxes, a special 
 tax of 7 per cent of the gross earnings 
 from its charter lines. The Illinois Cen- 
 tral has realized $23,218,611 from the sale 
 of its lands, while payments to the state 
 under the charter tax have aggregated, 
 with the accruals to March 31, 1921, the 
 total of $48,771,105.95. In ceding the 
 lands, the federal government relin- 
 quished alternate sections and the price 
 of the lands retained was advanced from 
 $1.25 to $2.50 an acre. These were rap- 
 idly disposed of as the building of the 
 railway progressed. 
 
 The charter was accepted and the 
 company was organized at a meeting of 
 the incorporators in New York, March 
 19, 1851. Three days later they selected 
 Col. Roswell B. Mason as engineer and 
 placed him in charge of construction. 
 
 Page Four
 
 Surveying began immediately and ground 
 was broken with ceremonies at Chicago 
 and Cairo December 23 of that year. 
 
 The road's securities were received 
 with confidence and the first issue of 
 capital stock sold at a premium. This 
 was due in part to the land grant, and also 
 to the confidence which the early di- 
 rectors held as individual financiers. 
 
 The building of the charter lines was 
 pushed and sections were placed in oper- 
 ation as rapidly as they were completed. 
 
 14-Mile Strip Finished First 
 
 The first section to be opened was a 
 stretch of fourteen miles between Chi- 
 cago and Calumet, which had been built 
 with the aid "of the Michigan Central to 
 allow that road to enter Chicago, giving 
 the city traffic connections with the 
 East. It was completed May 15, 1852. 
 Sixty miles of the road from LaSalle to 
 Bloomington were opened May 16, 1853, 
 and this was added to at intervals, until 
 the charter lines were finally completed, 
 September 27, 1856, by linking the gap of 
 seventy-seven miles between Mattoon 
 and Centralia. The total cost of the char- 
 ter lines was $26,568,017.61, or approxi- 
 mately $37,600 a mile. 
 
 Compared with the present condition 
 of the charter lines, construction and 
 equipment were very poor. The road 
 was built, however, according to the best 
 standards of the time. 
 
 Freight and passenger service was in- 
 augurated on each stretch of road as it 
 was completed. Two passenger trains a 
 day were operated over important lines. 
 The freight traffic was irregular, accord- 
 ing to the demands of the season. 
 
 A suburban service between Chicago 
 and Hyde Park was established early in 
 the history of the railway, and later this 
 was extended to Matteson, Blue Island 
 and South Chicago. It had a great in- 
 fluence in developing Chicago's South 
 Side as a residence section. Property lo- 
 cated near the Illinois Central is con- 
 sidered more valuable than that in most 
 of the other sections of the city because 
 of the superior quality of the suburban 
 
 Page Five
 
 service. The suburban service played an 
 important role in handling traffic for the 
 Columbian Exposition. Four hundred 
 five passenger trains are now operated 
 daily over the Chicago Terminal, includ- 
 ing the suburban service. 
 
 The road received a setback with the 
 panic of 1857 and the crop failures of 
 1858, but by 1860 these conditions had 
 been overcome and the months imme- 
 diately preceding the Civil War were 
 most prosperous. 
 
 Extracts from Appleton's Railway 
 and Steam Navigation Guide No. 1, pub- 
 lished in July. 1856, give a panoramic 
 view of the early history of the Illinois 
 Central. The guide relates that in 1827 
 a railway four miles long was constructed 
 in Massachusetts, probably the first rail- 
 way in the United States. Horse power 
 was the only locomotive power employed. 
 
 At the time the guide was published 
 the Illinois Central, with more than 700 
 miles, was the longest road in the world. 
 An interesting prophecy, in the light of 
 later developments, was made by the 
 author of the guide in these words : 
 
 "At Cairo, the Illinois Central connects 
 with Southern lines to Mobile and New 
 Orleans and the Mississippi steamers. 
 When all these lines are completed, it 
 will be possible for a traveler to leave the 
 Lakes on Monday morning and take his 
 coffee on the Gulf of Mexico on Wednes- 
 day morning ; and that at an expense 
 which would barely defray the cost of a 
 journey from Dublin to London, or Paris 
 to Berlin." 
 
 The Illinois Central's fast passenger 
 train, the Panama Limited, now has a 
 running time of less than twenty- 
 three hours between Chicago and New 
 Orleans ! 
 
 Effects of the Civil War 
 
 The Illinois Central played an impor- 
 tant part in the movement of troops and 
 supplies during the Civil War. Under 
 the terms of the charter the road was re- 
 quired to handle certain government 
 traffic at reduced rates, but business in 
 
 Page Six
 
 the later years of the war became pros- 
 perous and the road was offered more 
 traffic than could be moved readily. 
 
 One of the most important effects of 
 the Civil War was that business was cut 
 off from Cairo south, and attention was 
 turned to the development of feeder lines 
 within the state of Illinois and exten- 
 sions westward. 
 
 The development of feeder lines and 
 the reaching out westward began almost 
 immediately following the Civil War. 
 Among the most important of the earlier 
 acquisitions were the Dubuque & Sioux 
 City Railroad and the Cedar Falls & 
 Minnesota Railroad, which were leased 
 October 1, 1867, thus supplying the pres- 
 ent western arm of the Illinois Central 
 System through Iowa and establishing 
 direct communication with the upper 
 Missouri Valley. 
 
 Extensions south of the Ohio River 
 began with the lease of the Chicago, St. 
 Louis & New Orleans Railroad Com- 
 pany, which dates from July 1, 1882. 
 This road was formed by the consolida- 
 tion of the New Orleans, Jackson & 
 Great Northern Railroad Company, ex- 
 tending from New Orleans to Canton, 
 Miss., which was built before the Civil 
 War, and the Mississippi Central, from 
 Canton to Cairo, of which the part from 
 Canton to Jackson, Tenn., was built 
 prior to the Civil War. A line to Louis- 
 ville, Ky., and a northern entrance into 
 Memphis were secured September 15, 
 1897, by obtaining control of the Chesa- 
 peake, Ohio & Southwestern Railroad 
 Company. 
 
 The actual completion of the rail traf- 
 fic route from the Great Lakes and the 
 upper Mississippi Valley to the Gulf of 
 Mexico may be said to have taken place 
 with the opening of the bridge over the 
 Ohio River at Cairo, October 29, 1889, 
 although prior to that time north and 
 south traffic had been transferred at that 
 point by ferry. 
 
 The erection of the bridge was of itself 
 a notable engineering accomplishment. 
 When completed it was 3| miles long, in- 
 cluding trestles. Fills have since been 
 
 Page Seven
 
 made. The bridge proper is 4,644 feet in 
 length. Seventy trains now pass over it 
 daily, or an average of one train about 
 every twenty minutes. 
 
 An Influence for Progress 
 
 Throughout its history the Illinois 
 Central has employed the policy of build- 
 ing or leasing tributary lines, centering 
 its attention upon building up its imme- 
 diate territory, rather than reaching out 
 for a footing in new fields. In this way, 
 it has been able to encourage systematic 
 growth. 
 
 In the early period of its history the 
 Illinois Central contributed more than all 
 other factors to building up the state of 
 Illinois. Settlement of the inland coun- 
 ties progressed rapidly, agricultural 
 methods were improved, industries were 
 located and the commercial life of the 
 state expanded. The Illinois Central en- 
 dorsed the movement to establish the 
 University of Illinois at Champaign and 
 contributed the first $50,000 toward the 
 university fund. The University of Illi- 
 nois now enrolls more than 11,000 stu- 
 dents and is conceded to have one of the 
 greatest agricultural colleges in the 
 United States. 
 
 The road also had a large influence in 
 developing Chicago as a metropolis. 
 Entrance to the city was gained over the 
 lake front under terms whereby the rail- 
 way took over the then extensive burden 
 of protecting the city from the encroach- 
 ments of Lake Michigan. The lines were 
 extended north to the Chicago River and 
 in 1853 the erection of the Randolph 
 Street passenger station, then the most 
 expensive passenger station in the coun- 
 try, began. Building the lines into the 
 heart of the city encouraged Chicago's 
 industrial and commercial growth, and, 
 on the other hand, the lake front pro- 
 vided the Illinois Central with the site 
 for the finest railway terminals in the 
 country. 
 
 The Field Museum 
 
 A notable contribution to the city of 
 
 Page Eight
 
 Chicago has been made in recent years. 
 For more than fifty years following the 
 railway's entrance to the city, disputes 
 arose over the lake front. A clause in 
 the will of the late Marshall Field pro- 
 vided for the building of the Field Colum- 
 bian Museum, if the city would furnish 
 w^ithin a certain time a site accessible to 
 the down-town section. A site was not 
 found and the gift was about to be lost to 
 the city when the Illinois Central brought 
 forth a plan whereby the museum might 
 be located upon the lake front, the rail- 
 way granting the site, on condition that 
 the controversies over riparian rights be 
 adjusted on a fair basis. The city ac- 
 cepted, after lengthy debating, demand- 
 ing, however, electrification of the 
 Illinois Central terminals. 
 
 The museum was built as part of the 
 general plan for development of the lake 
 front. The new Illinois Central passen- 
 ger station, now under contemplation, 
 which will be part of that general plan, 
 will be among the largest passenger sta- 
 tions in the world. When it lifts its dome 
 above the waters of Lake Michigan, and 
 the electric trains glide along the shore, 
 threading the parks and lagoons and the 
 business and residence districts of the 
 South Side, they will be a monument to 
 the Illinois Central. The marble palace 
 of the museum also will be a monument 
 to the Illinois Central; but for the rail- 
 way's timely offer, the gift might have 
 been lost to the city. 
 
 Developing the South 
 
 Just as the Illinois Central played a 
 prominent part in building up the state 
 of Illinois in the two decades of 1850 to 
 1870, its influence in later years has been 
 extended to building up the South. Mod- 
 em farm methods — dairying, crop rota- 
 tion, the use of fertilizers, fruit and truck 
 farming — have been encouraged. The 
 South is now coming rapidly to the front 
 in agriculture. 
 
 Truck farming began on a small scale 
 under the auspices of the Illinois Central 
 in 1875 at Crystal Springs, Mississippi. 
 
 Page Nine
 
 Shipments were handled by express. 
 Later ventilated fruit cars were used, then 
 refrigerator cars. The industry has 
 spread and more than 4,000 carloads of 
 vegetables were transported from the 
 South over the Illinois Central lines dur- 
 ing 1920. Sweet potato dry kilns have 
 been located on the Southern lines of the 
 Illinois Central during the last few years, 
 and that industry is now most promising. 
 
 The strawberry industry started in a 
 back-yard garden at Independence, Lou- 
 isiana, twenty-seven years ago, and has 
 spread to a large territory. More than 
 1,800 carloads of berries were transported 
 over the Illinois Central in the 1921 
 season. 
 
 Similar co-operative measures have 
 stimulated dairying, the raising of beef 
 cattle and pure-bred hogs. 
 
 The development of the Illinois Central 
 in the South has played an important 
 part in building up the port of New 
 Orleans, the second port in the United 
 States in the amount of exports and im- 
 ports handled, surpassed only by New 
 York. New Orleans is the natural gate- 
 way from the Mississippi Valley to Cen- 
 tral and South America, and the Illinois 
 Central leads all other railway systems in 
 the amount of traffic handled through 
 that gateway. 
 
 The total capacity of the Illinois Cen- 
 tral yards at New Orleans is 9,384 cars, 
 the most outstanding of the yards being 
 Stuyvesant Docks, with a capacity of 
 2,316 cars, and Harahan Yard, with a 
 capacity of 4,090 cars. Harahan Yard is 
 used for classification of in- and out- 
 bound freight at New Orleans. 
 
 Stuyvesant Docks comprise a wharf 
 4,700 feet long with an area of 650,000 
 square feet; damp-, rat- and fire-proof 
 warehouses with an area of 520,000 
 square feet ; grain elevators with a capac- 
 ity for storing 2,500,000 bushels, and the 
 2,316-car capacity yard. Other IlUnois 
 Central yards, with their capacities, in- 
 clude: Poydras Yard, 1,070 cars; Gov- 
 ernment Yard, 762 cars; Levee Yard, 587 
 cars; Southport Yard. 306 cars, and Chal- 
 mette Yard, 253 cars. 
 
 Page Ten
 
 Figures of Early History 
 
 The names of the men who were con- 
 nected with the early history of the Illi- 
 nois Central have become illustrious. 
 They were among the leading figures of 
 their day. Robert Rantoul, Jr., succes- 
 sor to Daniel Webster in the United 
 States Senate, was largely influential, as 
 a director, in shaping the early financial 
 policies of the road. Robert Schuyler, the 
 first president, was possibly the leading 
 railway executive of the period. 
 Stephen A. Douglas and Judge Sidney 
 Breese, United States Senators from Illi- 
 nois, were early sponsors of the road and 
 were instrumental in securing the grant 
 of government lands. Gouverneur Morris 
 and William H. Osborn were among the 
 early directors, the former being one of 
 the incorporators. 
 
 Col. Roswell B. Mason, builder of the 
 charter lines, who later served as mayor 
 of Chicago, was the first superintendent 
 of transportation. He was succeeded 
 by George B. McClellan, afterward 
 commander-in-chief of the federal arm.ies 
 in the Civil War. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, during the early 
 days of his law practice, was a local at- 
 torney of the Illinois Central. Among 
 the other prominent figures of Civil War 
 days who were associated with the Illinois 
 Central System were : Gen. P. G. T. Beau- 
 regard (Confederate), Maj.-Gen. A. E. 
 Burnside, Maj.-Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, 
 Maj.-Gen. Edward C. Walthall (Confed- 
 erate), Maj.-Gen. E. P. Alexander (Con- 
 federate), Brig.-Gen. Thomas E. G. Ran- 
 som, Brig.-Gen. Mason Brayman, Brig.- 
 Gen. John Basil Turchin, Brig.-Gen. 
 H. L. Robinson, Brig.-Gen. Rufus Polk 
 Neely (Confederate), Brig.-Gen. Alex- 
 ander R. Lawton (Confederate), Brig.- 
 Gen. G. M. Sorrell (Confederate), Col. 
 John B. Wyman, Col. David Stuart, Col. 
 James T. Tucker, Lieut.-Col. L. Q. C. 
 Lamar (Confederate), Maj. Joseph Kirk- 
 land and Maj. Ben H. Green (Confed- 
 erate). 
 
 Page Eleven
 
 Page Twelve
 
 Page Thirteen
 
 The Twentieth Century 
 
 The beginning of the twentieth cen- 
 tury ushered in a period of railway his- 
 tory which may be designated the "anti- 
 railway era." The scope of public 
 regulation had developed in alarming 
 proportions and the roads were strangled 
 through oppressive legislation and the 
 refusal of adequate rates. The Illinois 
 Central, in common with the other rail- 
 ways, suffered. 
 
 Shortly after the United States entered 
 the World War the railways were taken 
 over by the government and during the 
 twenty-six months of federal control, 
 when the business of winning the war 
 was the paramount task of the railways, 
 the Illinois Central organization met its 
 responsibilities nobly. 
 
 The railways were returned to their 
 owners March 1, 1920, under the Trans- 
 portation Act, which seeks to alleviate 
 the oppressive burdens of recent years 
 and to restore rational development. 
 
 Yazoo & Mississippi Valley 
 
 The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Rail- 
 road Company, threading the delta coun- 
 try between Memphis and New Orleans, 
 became a part of the Illinois Central Sys- 
 tem in 1892, with the purchase of its capi- 
 tal stock. It is now operated jointly with 
 the parent road. 
 
 The road was formed by a combina- 
 tion made effective October 24, 1892, be- 
 tween a company of the same name 
 which had been created February 17, 
 1882, and the Louisville, New Orleans & 
 Texas Railway Company, which latter 
 company itself grew out of a consolida- 
 tion made August 12, 1884. 
 
 The Central of Georgia 
 
 The Central of Georgia Railway Com- 
 pany, which represents nearly one-fourth 
 of the present Illinois Central System, is 
 
 Pajre Fourteen
 
 owned by the Illinois Central Railroad 
 Company, but is operated independently. 
 It has an interesting history, antedating 
 that of the Illinois Central itself. 
 
 The Central of Georgia was incorpo- 
 rated December 20, 1833, as the Central 
 Railroad & Canal Company of Georgia, 
 and was completed between Savannah 
 and Macon — a distance of 191 miles — 
 October 13, 1843. Trains had been oper- 
 ated as early as August, 1839, between 
 Savannah and a point seventy-six miles 
 west. In 1835 the corporate name was 
 changed to the Central Railroad & Bank- 
 ing Company of Georgia, and October 17, 
 1895, to the Central of Georgia Railway 
 Company. The Macon & Western Rail- 
 road Company between Macon and At- 
 lanta, 103 miles, was leased May 25, 1871, 
 and on August 24, 1872, it was consoli- 
 dated with the Central of Georgia Rail- 
 way Company, the capital stock of which 
 was acquired by the Illinois Central Rail- 
 road Company in June, 1909. 
 
 The Central of Georgia continued its 
 policy of acquiring tributary lines and 
 making new additions, until now it ex- 
 tends westward through Georgia and 
 Alabama to Augusta, Macon, Columbus, 
 and Atlanta, Georgia, Chattanooga, Ten- 
 nessee, and Montgomery, Andalusia, 
 Lockhart and Birmingham, Alabama, 
 forming a connection at the latter city 
 with the Illinois Central. 
 
 Its modern terminal facilities at Savan- 
 nah comprise a river frontage of one mile. 
 It has four slips with a docking space of 
 nearly 12,000 lineal feet, warehouses with 
 a storage space of 1,358,815 square feet, 
 and open sheds of 1,012,138 square feet. 
 
 Ocean Steamship Company 
 
 The most important subsidiary holding 
 of the Central of Georgia Railway Com- 
 pany is the Ocean Steamship Company of 
 Savannah, which plies a coastwise traffic 
 between Savannah, New York and Bos- 
 ton. 
 
 The steamship company was organ- 
 ized in 1872, when six steamships with a 
 
 P^ge Fifteen
 
 total gross tonnage of 6,563 were acquired 
 at a cost of $600,000. There are now eight 
 steamers in service with a gross tonnage 
 of 36,568, in addition to two tugs and 
 twenty-seven lighters. Extensive ter- 
 minals are owned or controlled at Hobo- 
 ken, New York, Boston and Savannah. 
 In addition to their freight traffic, the 
 steamers have a passenger carrying 
 capacity of 1,267 persons. 
 
 Two of the steamers, the City of Sa- 
 vannah and the City of Atlanta, were 
 employed in the United States Army 
 Transport Service during the World 
 War. Prior to that they and others were 
 engaged in overseas trade. The City of 
 Memphis was torpedoed by a German 
 submarine March 17, 1917, while return- 
 ing from France. 
 
 The steamers now in service are the 
 City of St. Louis, City of Montgomery, 
 City of Savannah, City of Atlanta, City 
 of Columbus, City of Rome, City of Au- 
 gusta, and the Nacoochee. The general 
 ofBces are at Pier 35, North River, New 
 York. 
 
 How the System Has Grown 
 
 In 1857 the gross revenue of the Illi- 
 nois Central System as then constituted 
 was $2,300,000. In 1920 it was $202,- 
 844,270.58. 
 
 The freight traffic carried in 1857 was 
 the equivalent of 50,000,000 tons trans- 
 ported one mile. In 1920 the net ton 
 miles of revenue freight amounted to 
 17,061,044,291. 
 
 The revenue freight handled on the 
 system in 1920 aggregated 68,362,036 
 tons. These were among the principal 
 commodities : 
 
 Tons Revenue 
 
 Coal 25,595,659 $31,794,643 
 
 Lumber and other 
 
 forest products.. 9,933,343 18,214,248 
 
 Grain 4,423,116 9,586,628 
 
 Petroleum and 
 
 products 2,088,237 4,857,119 
 
 Page Sixteen
 
 Tons Revenue 
 Flour and other 
 
 mill products . . . 1,331,067 $2,997,162 
 
 Cement 908,095 1,236,733 
 
 Cotton seed and 
 
 products 852,479 1,787,181 
 
 Cotton 671,802 3,382,136 
 
 Road Has 14,225 Owners 
 
 The Illinois Central Railroad Com- 
 pany, which owns the subsidiary cor- 
 porations of the system, is, in turn, 
 owned by 14,225 shareholders. Eight 
 shareholders own 5,000 shares or more 
 each; 87, between 1,000 and 5,000 shares 
 each; 115, between 500 and 1,000 shares 
 each; 1,699, between 100 and 500 
 shares each, and 12,316, between 1 and 
 99 shares each. The average holding is 
 77 shares. 
 
 The number of shareholders has in-* 
 creased 4,190 since 1916. There also has 
 been an increase in the number of shares 
 held in the United States. In October, 
 1910, there were 183,418 shares held 
 abroad; in April, 1921, the number had 
 been reduced to 45,070. 
 
 The Illinois Central was the first road 
 in the country — in fact, one of the first 
 corporations — to sell stock to employes. 
 The plan has been in operation since 
 1893, and many of the company's shares 
 are held by officers and employes and 
 members of their families. Every em- 
 ploye has the privilege of subscribing for 
 stock and paying for it by deductions 
 from pay or by direct payments. Em- 
 ployes buying stock share in all the priv- 
 ileges of stockholders and during the 
 time their payments are being made they 
 receive interest on their deposits. 
 
 Long Dividend Record 
 
 The Illinois Central Railroad Com- 
 pany stands second among all the rail- 
 ways of the United States in the number 
 of years it has paid cash dividends with- 
 out interruption, its record standing un-- 
 
 Page Seventeen
 
 broken since 1860. The only railway to 
 excel that record is the Pennsylvania, 
 which has paid cash dividends without in- 
 terruption since 1856. 
 
 Capitalization 
 
 The total capitalization of the Illinois 
 Central System, with its owned and affil- 
 iated lines, including capital stock and 
 funded debt in hands of the public, is 
 $428,756,795, according to the figures of 
 January 1, 1921. On that same date its 
 total investment in road and equipment 
 amounted to $534,340,789, or a total of 
 $105,583,994 in excess of its total capital- 
 ization. 
 
 Millions in Pensions 
 
 The pension department of the Illi- 
 nois Central and the Yazoo & Missis- 
 sippi Valley railroads was inaugurated 
 July 1, 1901. Since then, and including 
 December 31, 1920, a total of 1,295 em- 
 ployes have been retired on pensions, of 
 whom 611 were carried on the pension 
 rolls at the latter date. A total of 
 $2,106,035.82 had been paid out in pen- 
 sions up to December 31, 1920. 
 
 Markham Yard 
 
 A large freight classification yard, one 
 of the most extensive of its kind in the 
 world, is now under construction by the 
 Illinois Central immediately south of Chi- 
 cago. When completed, the total cost 
 will be $8,000,000. Through it will pass 
 all freight handled by the Illinois Central 
 between Chicago and the South. It will 
 have 106 miles of track with a capacity 
 of 13,820 cars, and will be especially no- 
 table because of a single classification 
 yard with 62 tracks of a capacity of 2,960 
 cars served from a single hump. The 
 yard is made necessary by the increase 
 in freight business handled in and out of 
 Chicago. 
 
 The yard is located between Harvey 
 and Homewood, twenty-one miles south 
 
 Page Eighteen
 
 of the South Water Street terminal 
 of the IlHnois Central. The northbound 
 yard will consist of a receiving yard of 20 
 tracks, having a total capacity of 2,390 
 cars; a classification yard of 62 tracks, 
 with a capacity of 2,960 cars, and a de- 
 parture yard of 20 tracks, with space for 
 1,950 cars. The southbound yard will 
 have a receiving yard of 20 tracks, with 
 a capacity of 1,950 cars; a classification 
 yard of 40 tracks, with space for 2,050 
 cars, and a departure yard of 20 tracks, 
 with a capacity of 2,070 cars. 
 
 A less-than-carload transfer station 
 consisting of five platforms 700 feet long, 
 with tracks on either side, and a support- 
 ing yard, immediately to the south, of 
 equivalent track capacity, will be built 
 parallel to the southbound departure 
 yard. 
 
 A repair yard of 21 tracks, holding 660 
 cars, is to be provided between the two 
 yards. Two roundhouses, a coaling sta- 
 tion and other facilities for the engine 
 terminals, are included in the plans. The 
 placing of about 5,000,000 cubic yards of 
 filling is involved. There will be street 
 subways, and the terminal will have in- 
 terlocking plants, electric lighting, pneu- 
 matic tube systems for the dispatching of 
 waybills, automatic scales at the hump, 
 and other modern facilities. 
 
 Other Large Terminals 
 
 Markham Yard will be the ranking ter- 
 minal of the entire Illinois Central Sys- 
 tem. Other important terminals of the 
 system, of more than 1,000-car capacity 
 each, include : 
 
 Location 
 
 New Orleans, La 
 
 Chicago, 111 
 
 Centralia, 111 
 
 Savannah, Ga. . . . 
 Memphis, Tenn. , 
 
 Macon, Ga 
 
 Mounds, 111 
 
 Champaign, 111. . 
 
 Capacity — Cars 
 
 9,384 
 8,871 
 6,084 
 6,000 
 5,872 
 5,320 
 3,062 
 2,950 
 
 Page Nineteen
 
 Location Capacity — Cars 
 
 East St. Louis, 111 2,620 
 
 Clinton, 111 2,545* 
 
 Atlanta, Ga 1,824 
 
 McComb, Miss 1,821 
 
 Columbus, Ga 1,500 
 
 Gwin, Miss 1,450 
 
 Vicksburg, Miss 1,310 
 
 Albany, Ga 1,200 
 
 Jackson, Tenn 1,190 
 
 Freeport, 111 1,150 
 
 Louisville, Ky 1,136 
 
 Clarksdale, Miss 1,130 
 
 Rank of the System 
 
 The mileage of the Illinois Central 
 System is 8,157 4y 5 miles, or 3| per cent 
 of the total of all Class I railways, which 
 have a total mileage of 233,568 4/5 miles. 
 
 The Class I railways own 2,342,752 
 freight cars, of which 78,819, or 3 2/5 per 
 cent, are owned by the Illinois Central 
 System. 
 
 There are 65,560 locomotives owned by 
 the Class I railways, while the Illinois 
 Central System owns 2,177, or 3 3/10 
 per cent of the total. 
 
 Five hundred ninety-six passenger 
 trains are operated daily over the Illinois 
 Central System, or 5 7/10 per cent of the 
 10,347 operated daily by the Class I roads. 
 
 Of the passenger trains operated on the 
 Illinois Central in 1920, 96 per cent ar- 
 rived on time at their final destinations, 
 whereas the percentage for the railways 
 as a w^hole was about 83. 
 
 The system owns 2,025 passenger 
 service cars, of which 611, or 30 1/5 per 
 cent, are of steel construction through- 
 out, and 409, or 20 1 5 per cent, are of 
 steel underframe construction. The 
 Class I railways own 53,393 passenger 
 service cars, of which 15,646, or 29 3/10 
 per cent, are of steel construction, and 
 6,459, or 12 1 10 per cent, of steel under- 
 frame construction. 
 
 The average number of employes of 
 the Class I railways during 1920 was 
 
 *A new yard is under construction at Clinton. 
 The figures represent the completed yard. 
 
 Page Twenty
 
 2,153,158, of whom 72,137, or 3 2/5 per 
 cent, were employed on the Illinois Cen- 
 tral System. 
 
 The revenue freight transported one 
 mile by all Class I railways amounted to 
 409,970,656,000 tons in 1920, of which 
 17,061,044,291 tons— or 4 1/5 per cent — 
 were transported on the Illinois Central 
 System. 
 
 The number of passengers carried one 
 mile by the Class I railways in 1920 was 
 46,724,880,000, of which the lUinois Cen- 
 tral System carried 1,418,986,281, or 3 
 per cent. 
 
 The Illinois division of the Illinois 
 Central Railroad Company was awarded 
 the E. H. Harriman Memorial Medal in 
 1917 for the utmost progress in safety 
 and accident prevention during the fiscal 
 year ending June 30, 1916. The contest, 
 in which all divisions of the steam roads 
 of the United States competed, was con- 
 ducted under the direction of the Amer- 
 ican Museum of Safety. 
 
 Our Coal Traffic 
 
 All the railways of the country, in- 
 cluding the smaller lines, handled 556,- 
 516,000 tons of bituminous coal in 1920, 
 exceeding by 21^ per cent, or 98,453,000 
 tons, the amount handled in 1919. Dur- 
 ing 1920, the Illinois Central System 
 handled 25,595,659 tons of coal, a gain of 
 49^ per cent over the 17,121,511 tons 
 handled on its lines in the previous year. 
 
 The Illinois Central System, exclusive 
 of the Central of Georgia, stands sixth 
 among all roads of the United States in 
 coal traffic originated. Illinois ranks 
 second among the states in the produc- 
 tion of bituminous coal. The Illinois 
 Central is first in Illinois, leading all other 
 roads in the point of coal tonnage orig- 
 inated. 
 
 Page Twenty-one
 
 Notes of Interest 
 
 The cost of all coal consumed on the 
 Illinois Central System in 1914 was 
 $6,330,092.29. In 1920, coal costs mounted 
 to $20,696,510.78, an increase of 226 9/10 
 per cent. 
 
 The average tractive force in pounds 
 per engine in the Illinois Central through 
 freight service in 1921 is 50,089, com- 
 pared with 31,600 in 1910, an increase of 
 58^ per cent. 
 
 A freight engine travels an average of 
 80 miles per day, and the speed of a 
 freight train averages 11 miles per hour, 
 including delays. 
 
 A freight engine consumes 257 pounds 
 of coal per mile, and the fuel costs on a 
 freight train at present prices are about 
 equal to the wages of the train and en- 
 gine crews combined. 
 
 The average freight train carries a 
 net weight (excluding weight of cars) of 
 659 tons, compared with 359 tons in 1910, 
 an increase of 83 per cent. 
 
 The average capacity of freight cars 
 now in the Illinois Central service is 
 42 1/5 tons, compared with 38 tons in 
 1910, an increase of 11 1/10 per cent. 
 
 The average tons of freight loaded in 
 each freight car in 1920 were 30 7/10, 
 compared with 22 tons in 1910, an in- 
 crease of 392 per cent. 
 
 The average freight car makes a round 
 trip (dispatched loaded and returned 
 empty) every ten days, or approximately 
 thirty-six loaded trips a year. 
 
 Page Twenty-two
 
 A passenger engine consumes 110 
 pounds of coal per mile and averages 
 about 35 miles an hour, including delays. 
 
 One and one-half tons of gross passen- 
 ger car weight are hauled to carry each 
 coach passenger ; 4 2/5 tons, to carry each 
 sleeping-car passenger. 
 
 The Illinois Central stands fourth 
 among American railroads in net ton 
 miles of freight hauled. 
 
 The Illinois Central stands second 
 among American railroads in the aver- 
 age miles per car per day. 
 
 More than five billion passengers have 
 been carried one mile on the Illinois Cen- 
 tral System since a passenger riding in 
 a proper position was injured fatally. 
 
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 Page Twenty-three
 
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